Part 13 (2/2)
While these stirring events were happening at the frontier capital, and on the thirty-first of July, a considerable body of the citizens of Vincennes, both English and French, met at the seminary building, and after selecting Ephraim Jordan as president and one James Smith as secretary, certain resolutions were ”fallen into,” which vividly portray the emotions of the frontiersmen of that day and their dire apprehension of impending danger. The resolutions stated in substance that the safety of the persons and property of the inhabitants could never be effectively secured, but by the breaking up of the combination formed on the Wabash by the Shawnee Prophet; that the inhabitants regarded this combination as a British scheme; that but for the prompt measures of Governor Harrison, it was highly probable that the town would have been destroyed and the inhabitants ma.s.sacred. The Rev. Samuel T. Scott, the Rev. Alexander Devin, Colonel Luke Decker, Francis Vigo and others, were appointed as a committee to draft an address to the President of the United States, setting forth their situation and praying for relief. On the same day this address was duly formulated and signed by the committee above mentioned, and forwarded to the chief executive of the nation. In it, the citizens breathed forth their terrors and fear of the Wabash banditti, and their alarm at the constant depredations committed on the frontier. One pa.s.sage is significant. ”The people have become irritated and alarmed, and if the government will not direct their energies, we fear that the innocent will feel the effects of their resentment, and a general war be the consequence.” A temper of this kind could not long be disregarded. Temporizing must cease.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE MUSTER AND THE MARCH
--_The rally of the Kentuckians and their clansmen in southern Indiana, to Harrison's support--The coming of the support of the Fourth United States Regiment--The march to the Tippecanoe battlefield._
In the summer and early autumn of the year 1811, the British were again distributing arms and ammunition among the tribes of the northwest and rallying them for that second and final struggle with the United States.
In August of that year a Potawatomi chief informed Harrison that he was present when a message from the British agent was delivered to the Prophet, ”telling him that the time had arrived for taking up arms, and inviting him to send a party to Malden to receive the necessary supplies.” A statement made by Captain Benjamin Parke of the light dragoons of Vincennes, to the Governor on the thirteenth of September, was to the effect that the Indians of the Wabash and the Illinois had recently visited Elliott at Malden; ”that they are now returning from thence with a larger supply of goods than is known ever to have been distributed to them before; that rifles or fusees are given to those who are unarmed, and powder and lead to all.” A similar communication made by the Hon. Waller Taylor, a judge of the supreme court of the Territory, stated that, ”The spirit of hostility manifested by the Prophet and his followers (who, it is said, are daily increasing); the thefts and murders committed within a few months past, and the unusual quant.i.ties of arms, ammunition, etc., which not only these, but the Indians generally have received from the British agent at Fort Malden, strongly evidence a disposition to commence war as soon as a fit opportunity occurs.”
In this same month of September, Touissant Dubois, a French-Canadian agent of the Governor's, reported to him that all the Indians along the Wabash had been, or were then, on a visit to the British agency. ”He (Dubois) has been in the Indian trade thirty years and has never known, as he thinks, more than one-fourth as many goods given to the Indians as they are now distributing. He examined the share of one man (not a chief) and found that he had received an elegant rifle, 25 pounds of powder, 50 of lead, 3 blankets, 3 strouds of cloth, 10 s.h.i.+rts, and several other articles. He says that every Indian is furnished with a gun (either rifle or fusil), and an abundance of ammunition. A trader of this country was lately at the King's stores at Malden. He saw 150 kegs of powder (supposed to contain about 60 pounds each), and he was told that the quant.i.ty of goods for the Indian Department which had been sent over this year exceeded that of common years by twenty thousand pounds sterling. It is impossible to ascribe this profusion to any other motive than that of instigating the Indians to take up the tomahawk. It cannot be to secure their trade, for all the peltries collected on the waters of the Wabash in one year, if sold in the London market, would not pay the freight of the goods which have been given to the Indians.” The contagion of unrest, thus encouraged and cultivated, was, as Captain Parke observed, rapidly spreading to all the tribes of the Wabash, the lakes and the Mississippi, and the influence of the Prophet was daily increasing. Unless the nest of banditti at Tippecanoe was broken up, the axe would quickly fall on all the settlements.
The plans of the Governor were speedily formed and most energetically carried forward. His purposes were, to call upon the tribes to immediately deliver up any and all of their people who had been concerned in the murders on the frontier; to require them to fulfill ”that article of the Treaty of Greenville which obliges them to give information and to stop any parties pa.s.sing through their districts with hostile intentions;” to further require them to cause such of their warriors as had joined the Prophet to immediately return to their tribes, or be put out of their protection. Of the Miamis he would demand an absolute disavowal of all further connection with the Prophet, and a disapprobation of his continued occupancy of their lands. All the tribes were to be reminded of the lenity, justice and continued consideration of the United States, and the efforts of the government to civilize them and promote their happiness, and warned that in case they took up the tomahawk against their fathers, no further mercies might be expected. To enforce these requirements, spread terror among the recalcitrant, and give strength to the wavering, he proposed to move up to the upper line of the New Purchase with two companies of regulars, fourteen or fifteen companies of militia, and two troops of dragoons. He hoped thus to dissolve the Prophet's bands without the effusion of blood, but in case of a continued defiance he proposed to march into the Indian country and enforce his demands with sword in hand.
Immediately after the conference with Tec.u.mseh the Governor had sent a message to the Miami chiefs who had accompanied the Shawnee leader, requiring their return to Vincennes, that he might confer with them on measures of peace. To this demand they returned an insolent reply and refused to come. He then dispatched Touissant Dubois with a written speech to the Miami, Eel river and Wea tribes.
”My children: My eyes are open and I am now looking toward the Wabash. I see a dark cloud hanging over it. Those who have raised it intended it for my destruction, but I will turn it upon their heads.”
”My children: I hoped that you would not be injured by this cloud. You have seen it gathering. You had timely notice to keep clear of it. The thunder begins to roll; take care that it does not burst upon your heads.”
”My children: I now speak plainly to you. What is that great collection of people at the mouth of the Tippecanoe intended for? I am not blind, my children. I can easily see what their object is. Those people have boasted that they will find me asleep, but they will be deceived.”
”My children: Do not suppose that I will be foolish enough to suffer them to go on with their preparations until they are ready to strike my people. No. I have watched their motions. I know what they wish to do, and you know it also. Listen, then, to what I say. I will not suffer any more strange Indians to settle on the Wabash. Those that are there, and do not belong there, shall disperse and go to their own tribes.”
”My Children: When you made the treaty with General Wayne you promised that if you knew of any parties of Indians pa.s.sing through your country with hostile intentions toward us, that you would give us notice of it and endeavor to stop them. I now inform you that I consider all those who join the Prophet and his party as hostile, and call upon you to fulfill your engagements. I have also sent to the tribes who have any of their warriors with the Prophet, to withdraw them immediately. Those who do not comply, I shall consider to have let go the chain of friends.h.i.+p which united us.”
”My Children: Be wise and listen to my voice. I fear that you have got on a road that will lead you to destruction. Have pity upon your women and children. It is time that my friends should be known. I shall draw a line. Those who keep me by the hand must keep on one side of it, and those that adhere to the Prophet on the other.”
”My children: Take your choice. My warriors are in arms but they shall do you no hurt unless you force me to it. But I must have satisfaction for the murder of my people and the war pole that has been raised on the Wabash must be taken down.”
When Dubois arrived at the Miami town with the above message, the chieftains were all preparing to go to Malden. The words of the Governor called them to a sudden halt. They must now determine whether they would further listen to the counsel of the Prophet and accept presents from the British, or remain on terms of friends.h.i.+p with the United States. No further wavering or delay would be tolerated.
In the council which followed, Lapoussier was insolent and told Dubois that the Miamis had received no notice whatever of any hostile intention on the part of the Prophet; that they (the Miamis) would defend their lands to the last man, and that the Governor was making himself contemptible in the eyes of all. These bold declarations were approved by Pecan, the Big Man, Negro Legs, Osage, and Sa-na-mah-hon-ga, or The One That Eats Stones, commonly known as the Stone Eater. The words of Little Turtle were of a different tone. He then and afterwards, affirmed his allegiance to the United States. While he prayed the Governor to avoid if possible the shedding of blood, he still proclaimed that the lands on the Wabash were the property of the Miamis; that they had endeavored to stop the Prophet from going there, and that his settlement was made without their consent. ”I told my people when they were going to see the Governor not to say anything respecting the land; that the treaty was made and it was a fair one. They had signed the paper which bound the sale of the lands, and that nothing further should be said on the subject. I also charged them whatever they did, to have nothing to do with the Prophet; that the Prophet was an enemy of Governor Harrison's and Governor Harrison's of his; that if they formed any kind of connection with the Prophet it would make the Governor an enemy of theirs.”
While these events were going forward, the Governor was making preparations for his expedition up the Wabash. The noise of the coming storm soon reached the ears of the Kentuckians. On the twenty-fourth of August, Joseph Hamilton Daviess wrote to the Governor offering himself as a volunteer. He had been instrumental in checking the treasonable designs of Aaron Burr, was Master of the Grand Lodge of Free Masons of the state of Kentucky, and was one of the most eloquent advocates at the bar of his state. His coming was hailed with eager joy by the rough militiamen of the frontier. In the latter part of the month Harrison was in Louisville asking for volunteers. His call, says Pirtle, ”was met with a prompt and ample response. He was very popular, his voice stirring the people like a bugle call. Old Indian fighters like Major General Samuel Wells and Colonel Abraham Owen, of the Kentucky militia, instantly started for the field.” Captain Frederick Geiger raised a company, and Captain Peter Funk, who was in command of a company of militia cavalry, at once hastened to Governor Charles Scott of Kentucky, to obtain permission to raise a company of mounted riflemen. In a few days his men were enrolled and early in September joined the forces of Colonel Joseph Bartholomew on their march to Vincennes.
On the third of September, the regular troops of the Fourth United States Regiment of infantry, under Colonel John Parke Boyd, arrived in keel boats at the Falls of the Ohio. The Governor was there to meet them. Boyd was a soldier of fortune and one of the most striking military adventurers of that day. A short sketch of him as given by Benson J. Lossing is as follows: ”John Parke Boyd was born in Newburyport, Ma.s.sachusetts, December 21, 1764. His father was from Scotland, and his mother was a descendant of Tristam Coffin, the first of that family who emigrated to America. He entered the army in 1786, as ensign in the Second Regiment. With a spirit of adventure, he went to India in 1789, having first touched the Isle of France. In a letter to his father from Madras, in June, 1790, he says: 'Having procured recommendatory letters to the British consul residing at the court of his highness, the Nizam, I proceeded to his capital, Hyberabad, 450 miles from Madras. On my arrival, I was presented to his highness in form by the British consul. My reception was as favorable as my most sanguine wishes had antic.i.p.ated. After the usual ceremony was over, he presented me with the command of two kansolars of infantry, each of which consists of 500 men.' His commission and pay were in accordance with his command. He describes the army of the Nizam, which had taken the field against Tippoo Sultan. It consisted of 150,000 infantry, 60,000 cavalry, and 500 elephants, each elephant supporting a 'castle'
containing a nabob and servants. He remained in India several years in a sort of guerrilla service, and obtained much favor. He was in Paris early in 1808 and at home in the autumn of that year, when he was appointed (October 2) Colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the U. S. Army.”
This tall, handsome and courteous officer, who had fought with the hordes of India on the other side of the world, was shortly to encounter the eagle-feathered chiefs of the Winnebagoes on the banks of the Wabash.
On the night of the 19th of September the regulars of the Fourth Regiment arrived at Vincennes by way of the Wabash. They were under the immediate command of Colonel James Miller, of ”I'll try, Sir,” fame in the War of 1812. The Governor and Colonel Boyd had already traveled overland on horseback from Louisville. The sight which greeted the eyes of the old French residents on the morning of the twentieth, was a novel one. The American infantry of that period wore a uniform consisting of ”blue, bra.s.s-b.u.t.toned tail-coats, skin-tight pantaloons, and 'stove-pipe hats,' with red, white and blue c.o.c.kades.” One pictures them marching in the brown October woods, their bayonets gleaming in the suns.h.i.+ne, and their bugles awakening strange echoes from headland and bluff. The regiment, though small, was made up of a formidable array of men. While not disciplined in Indian warfare, the rank and file were composed of brave, resolute soldiers, and such officers as Captains W. C. Baen, Josiah Snelling, Robert C. Barton, Return B. Brown, George W. Prescott and Joel Cook, were of the best of that time. The gallant Baen was on his last march, and his bones were destined to repose in a savage wilderness.
A military conference was now held, partic.i.p.ated in by Governor Harrison, Colonel Boyd, and two judges of the supreme court, Benjamin Parke and Waller Taylor, both of whom were officers in the local militia. It was determined to ascend the river with a respectable force, which would not only defy attack, but impress the tribesmen, if possible, with a due respect for the power and authority of the United States. The Prophet, though not a warrior, was known, as Harrison says, to be, ”daring, presumptuous and rash.” He was now reinforced by a considerable body of Winnebago warriors, and the Potawatomi of the prairies and the Illinois were coming to his support. A small expedition would not only excite contempt, but might lead to a disaster.
Accordingly, on the morning of the twenty-sixth of September, an army of about one thousand men, including one hundred and forty dragoons and sixty mounted riflemen, commenced its march to the upper end of the New Purchase. The cavalry had been sent forward two days before to the settlement of Busseron, where forage for the horses could more easily be procured. Just before the departure of the army, a deputation of warriors arrived from the Prophet's Town, led by a war chief of the hostile Kickapoos. He expressed his astonishment at seeing such warlike preparations, said that his women and children were all in tears, and falsely a.s.serted that the hearts of all the Prophet's party were warm towards the United States. The Governor peremptorily informed the Kickapoo that the army was about to march, and that nothing but an immediate surrender of the Indian murderers and horse-thieves would satisfy the government. The mount of Captain William Piatt, chief quartermaster of the expedition, and four horses from Busseron had just been stolen, and all further dissimulation on the part of the savages was without avail.
The account of the march, as recorded by Captain John Tipton, is exceedingly interesting. The militiamen of southern Indiana and Kentucky a.s.sembled from the frontier settlements, were men of simple habits, rough, unlettered, hard to teach the intricacies of military evolutions, but as General John C. Black has stated, they were also ”insensible to fatigue, watchful as a catamount, resolute as men, heroic as martyrs.”
Some of their favorite sports were wrestling, shooting at a mark, and horse-racing. All were inured to an active, outdoor life. Most of them were without tents and few had blankets, but they did not complain. As the army advanced through the wilderness, the cutting down of bee trees, the shooting of squirrels, racc.o.o.n and deer were everyday occurrences; horses strayed away and were recovered; the provision boats lodged on the sand bars in the river and were launched again; stories of adventure and midnight ma.s.sacre were told about the great camp fires. All came from families who had suffered from savage outrage; all hated both British and Indians ”with a holy hate,” and all were determined that the forces of civilization should not recede. They were eager for battle and unafraid.
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